Wildcats waste big effort from Barnes
Kansas State recorded some authoritative offensive statistics and even watched as three field goals and one PAT (10 points, total) miss the spacing between the uprights.
Yet Baylor, which had posted its last three victories in Big 12 games against one rival (Kansas) still triumphed 37-34 on Oct. 6, dropping the Wildcats to 2-4 overall, 0-3 in the Big 12 and in severe jeopardy of not earning a ninth straight bowl bid as they prepare to host Oklahoma State (4-2, 1-2) on Oct. 13.
The Bears won the game, as poetic justice would have it, on a late field goal, leaving Kansas State fewer than 10 seconds to get in position for a game-ending Hail Mary. Even then, quarterback Skylar Thompson did not even uncork a heave after bolting from the pocket to elude pressure before his throw was affected by defenders.
Halfway through the season, this is what Kansas State football has become under Bill Snyder, an aged coach who turned 79 the day after the Wildcats’ third straight defeat. Too many problems seem to pop up in too many situations. Against Baylor, the issues negated a 250-yard rushing performance by junior running back Alex Barnes.
Missed tackles, untimely penalties, loose coverage and the failure by Kansas State to call a defensive time out on the Bears’ final drive contributed to yet another loss that again called into question Snyder’s grasp of his personnel and game situations.
Before the setback against the Bears, controversy swirled over the veteran coach’s use of quarterbacks. Thompson, a sophomore who has been vastly superior at that position than junior Alex Delton, went the distance at Baylor after Delton made the trip but did not suit up because of an undisclosed injury.
Yet this loss was on the defense, with some help from special teams, which added another missed field goal of their own. Coming off a second-half shutout in a 19-14 loss to Texas, a game in which the Longhorns scored just one offensive touchdown, the Wildcats allowed 557 yards and could not get the late stop they needed after Thompson tied the game with a 28-yard pass to running back Dalvin Warmack with 4:26 remaining.
Thompson, however, was not flawless. He threw two interceptions and overthrew Barnes for a sure touchdown after the back went uncovered on a wheel route. Barnes also dropped a snap in the Wildcat formation on a fourth-down conversion try to give Baylor a short field. Kansas State finished with three turnovers and six penalties for 55 yards, including a major infraction for a late sideline hit on Baylor’s game-winning drive.
The mistakes proved costly, especially for a team that could not beat Texas despite committing no turnovers or penalties in defeat.
“In any ballgame, a minimal number of mistakes probably gives you a better chance to win, and when you make mistakes those are costly,” Snyder said.
Still, the two timeouts he decided to hold on to until Baylor got in position for its late field goal could have possibly given the Wildcats more time to execute offensively at the end.
“We need to get the brakes put on and we get the penalty and the penalty puts them in field goal range,” Snyder said.
Actually, the penalty came after Baylor’s very first play of the drive, a late hit on the sideline by linebacker Da’Quan Patton, which put the Bears on their 38-yard line after drive started at their own 13.
Typically, a 319-yard rushing performance by the methodical Wildcats would enable them to control the football and the clock. Touchdowns bursts of 55, 34 and 48 yards by Barnes, as well as a 52-yard keeper by Thompson for another score, ended drives abruptly and Kansas State managed to possess the ball for just 25-plus minutes, almost a 10-minute differential.
At the finish, the Wildcats’ defense, already thinned by injuries, was gassed.
The result was a second defeat in as many weeks by five points or less. Snyder, however, defended his team’s resiliency with a comment that could be taken as a vote of confidence for Thompson, a quarterback who has not received much praise from his coach.
“I don’t think it’s a trademark of this football team that we just come up short,” Snyder said.
“There’s a lot of things that enter into it, and that’s true every single game. I couldn’t put a tag on our football team that says we can’t win close ballgames, not by any stretch of the imagination.”